On and On and On
by PunkPinkPower
Summary: The rangers gather for Shane's twenty-fifth birthday, and Tori contemplates the way their friendship has changed (and hasn't) over the last five years.


Notes: Written for Lilyleia78 for Power Ranger Day 2013.

The year Shane, Tori and Dustin turn twenty-five is, overall, an uneventful one. It marks their fifth year as teachers together at the academy, one of Cam's prodigy student's blows up half the campus library, Blake wins two motocross championship circuits, and Kelly opens up a second store in Reef Side.

Not much has changed, in the grand scheme of things. Marah and Kapri have finally graduated with their ninja badges, and the last anyone heard they were off on another planet running an eco friendly fashion line. Sensei Watanabe is still the headmaster of the Wind Academy, Tori has been elected to serve beside him in a mostly honorary position on the Grand Council of their order, and Cam has rebuilt ninja ops even better than it was before.

At first glance, it seems as though nothing has changed at all, Tori imagines. But she feels _changed_ (though she can't imagine how five years have gone past in the blink of an eye) even if she doesn't really feel any older.

Shane's birthday is first, and he takes it the hardest. At least he seems to if judged by his constant state of moping.

"Ugggggg," Shane moans from the seat across her desk in the evening, his arms hanging over the side of the seat and his head dropped back, "I'm so old!"

Tori grins as she flips her notes around, not looking up at him. "Don't let Cam hear you say that. He's almost thirty."

"Yeah," Shane agrees, "But he's always been old, you know? He's like, an old soul, or something. I'm twenty-five, Tori. _Twenty-five_. I'm an adult."

"The horror," Tori agrees, and she shuffles her papers and puts them in a stack in her drawer, "Shall we put twenty-five candles on your cake, or just set the lawn alight?"

Shane glares at her. "I'm not that old," he objects with a small grin, "But maybe we should do that for Sensei."

Tori laughs, and she and Shane walk out of her office to meet their friends for his birthday dinner.

The first years at the academy had been difficult. Even working on the same five acres, Shane, Tori, Dustin and Cam had hardly had time to see each other at all, and Hunter had seem them only twice each year; at his own birthday and at the holidays. Blake's visits to Blue Bay Harbor had been frequent, but each one was tinged with sadness as none of them could spare much time for him between their overloaded classed and the projects that had accompanied the reconstruction of the academies.

Maybe that had contributed to how quickly the time had gone. Late nights had turned into early mornings, long days to long weeks and instead of slowing down after the academies were finished, time had only seemed to speed up. Blake had continued racing, dominating the motocross circuits stateside and eventually going pro internationally. They seemed to see even less of him when their schedules finally cleared, and between his racing and their teaching and Tori's honorary position on the Grand Council, it had been a long time since all of them had been together in one place at the same time.

"God," Blake says, thinking as he swirls his wine around in his glass, "Almost a year now, right? Because the last time I was here was for Kelly's grand opening, and Cam didn't come to that."

Cam chews his own food before answering. "I was busy helping the Pai Zhuq Academies restructure after that business with the ancient spirits in Ocean Bluff. Reef Side wasn't exactly nearby."

Blake holds up a hand, grinning. "Wasn't accusing, just stating fact."

"The time before that Dustin was becoming an uncle," Tori adds, taking her fork and reaching over to grab some of Cam's pasta off his plate, "And the time before that I was off learning diplomacy."

"And the time before that was Marah and Karpi's graduation," Shane agrees, "Which I'm not really sure counted as us all spending time together."

Hunter sniggers. "Unless you count spending the night looking for Cam because he got so wasted in celebration that he got lost in the woods," he says, and Cam holds up his fork threateningly.

"You have no idea what they put me through," he says, eyes wide, and Tori and Dustin both collapse into laughter, "They got held back three times. I deserved a celebration."

"You were hung-over for two days," Shane says, laughing, "I still remember how hard Dustin bit his tongue trying not to laugh when you knocked over those practice lathes in front of everyone."

"Oh man," Dustin says, rubbing at his mouth and frowning, "So do I."

"My point is," Tori says, smiling and wiping her fork off on her napkin to reach for Hunter's desert, "We don't see each other enough. Remember what we said when we had to split up? That things wouldn't be any different between us?"

Hunter bats her hand away from his chocolate cake. "Why don't you ever order your own?" He says, grinning as he fends off her attack with his own fork and shields his cake with his other hand.

"Because I don't want a whole one," Tori says, and she stretches across the table to try harder.

"She's going to win," Blake tells Hunter with a look. "She always wins."

"Yeah," Hunter agrees easily, still fighting her, "But it's the principle of the thing."

Dustin picks up his fork beside her, reaches across and pokes at Hunter's hand. While Hunter is distracted with Dustin, Tori managed to sneak a bite of cake off his plate, and Hunter squawks betrayal, but as he does Dustin grabs a bite with his own fork and her and Tori giggle across the table while Hunter acts annoyed, and they feed each other their pieces of cake triumphantly.

Shane and Blake exchange amused looks across the table, and Cam takes a drink as he shakes his head. "Yeah," he says, setting his glass down, "Things haven't changed between us that much."

Tori laughs as she chews her cake, and then the waiter comes over with Shane's free birthday ice cream and they sing happy birthday, and Shane complains about being old, and Hunter and Cam commiserate about being forced to hang out with such young people and say that they'd better get back to their retirement homes.

After dinner, none of them are ready to call it a night. They rarely are, and even though they have the weekend together, barring any problems arising, they decide to head to the beach for some stargazing.

Tori's old van kicked out the year after Lothor's defeat, but between hers and Shane and Dustin's salaries they'd been able to all pitch in to buy a maroon SUV they shared. It wasn't often they needed to go anywhere off the academies anyway, and when they did they mostly went together. Hunter rides his motorcycle there, and Cam and Blake get into Blake's ridiculously expensive sports car. Tori imagines they argue about the necessity and misuse of features all the way there.

The beach is deserted at night, and they amble out to the shore with muted laughter and bickering. Tori shoves Hunter in the arm, knocks him over in the soft sand, and he threatens revenge as she runs off, before she trips herself in the dark.

Cam brings out his phone to use as a flash light as Dustin and Shane haul her to her feet, and Hunter messes up her hair in revenge.

They end up sitting in the sand, high enough above the tide that they won't get wet but close enough to the ocean to feel the mist and see the stars and the moon. Blake pulls out pictures on his phone of his trophies, and of himself drinking something alcoholic out of one. Dustin shows them all pictures of his niece even though Tori and Shane have seen them a thousand times, and Cam relates the story of how his favorite student blew up the library to Blake and Hunter, who hoot with laughter.

Tori finds herself yawning, and then Shane is shaking her shoulder. "No! Fight the old people sleepiness. It's not even midnight!"

Tori rolls her eyes. "We were up at six in the morning! I'm allowed to be tired."

"Only old people get tired before midnight," Shane tells her seriously, and as if on cue, Hunter lets out a loud snoring noise and collapses on Shane. "Hunter!" Shane squeals as Hunter throws himself over Shane like dead weight while the others laugh, and Shane squirms and topples over.

"Sorry," Hunter says, holding Shane down and trying not to smile, "Can't hear you! Too old!"

Tori giggles at them, has to scoot over as Shane flails. Shane eventually manages to push Hunter off him, but as he hits the sand Hunter lets out a gasp.

"Do you know what I just thought of?" He asks, a smile creeping onto his face. "Birthday boy hasn't had his birthday spankings yet."

Blake's face lights up instantly, and Dustin's eyes practically sparkly. "That's right," Dustin says, already shifting to his feet, "How old are you again Shane?"

"Old enough that I don't need birthday spankings!" Shane objects immediately, jumping to his feet defensively. "Don't even try it!" Blake, Hunter and Dustin don't listen, of course, and they're chasing Shane down the breach in an instant. "I am a Ninja Master! You don't spank a Ninja Master!" Shane shrieks as he runs.

Tori and Cam remains sitting, watching the chaos. "You were right," Tori says to him with a smirk, "Things haven't changed at all, even if we never see each other."

Cam is quiet a minute, and they watch Shane narrowly avoid getting tackled by Dustin only to get trapped by Blake, and the three of them carry Shane to the waves even as he squirms. "Things change, Tori," Cam says, his voice soft even though it's tinged with amusement, "But that doesn't mean they aren't still good. Just because we aren't fighting monsters on a daily basis or camping out in ninja ops, spending every minute together," Cam jokes, turning his head to her, "Doesn't mean we care about each other any less, or that we aren't as good of friends now as we were then."

"I know that," Tori agrees, and the sound of a loud smack accompanied by Shane's squeal echoes out in the night and they both grimace slightly. "I just miss this. But it's good to know that when we are together it's like no time has passed. Like we've really been together all along."

"I think we have been," Cam says thoughtfully, but before Tori can answer they are interrupted by loud chanted counting.

Shane lets out another dramatic cry, and the others laugh and continue counting. "I'm a Ninja Master!" Shane yells again, still squirming in the surf.

"Come on, guys," Cam calls, sounding not at all authorities, "Put him down."

Tori laughs at him, and Shane yelps and calls out, "That's going to bruise!"

Still good, she thinks with a smile. Yes, things are still good.

Request 1 by lilyleia78

Power Rangers Ninja Storm

Hunter Bradley, Blake Bradley, Tori Hanson, Shane Clarke, Cameron Watanabe, Dustin Brooks Summary

The whole team reuniting when Blake's current tour is done or on a break. Please no mention of the Blake/Tori UST. I just want everyone laughing and teasing and having fun as a family.

Request 3 by lilyleia78

Power Rangers Samurai

Antonio Garcia, Jayden Shiba

Summary

I want to see them as kids again! How did they meet? What did they do together? Were there sleepovers? When did Antonio learn about the Rangers and Jayden's Samurai history? Anything. I just want them happy, carefree and adorable.


End file.
